Disney & Pixar's Inside Out 2 released in theaters worldwide last Friday, June 14th. And the success of this much-anticipated animated film has had this past week is nothing short of unthinkable, both here in the States and internationally. But how could this unexpected phenomenon happen so quickly after the past 4 years for Pixar Animation have been somewhat…..disastrous?
Pixar was once the peak of the animation world, but can it still continue with that today? Let's track step by step how this brand came to be what it is today.
“Pixar's Golden Age….”
For as long as anyone can remember, Pixar has been the golden standard of animation. This all came to be when the brand became a major corporation in 1986 when Apple (Steve Jobs) became their major shareholder. As well as Disney, who hadn't acquired Pixar yet by then, but had its distribution rights; Disney later bought the rights for Pixar in 2006.
With all of that now, in 1995, Pixar released their first animated feature film - Toy Story. It was both huge with critics and audiences alike, and the box office exploded with that one. Then came A Bug's Life (1998) and Toy Story 2 (1999), also loved by audiences and huge at the worldwide box office. Pixar Animation was starting to become a household name for families all around the globe. But it wasn't until two years later, in 2001, when Monsters, Inc came out that made Pixar exploded and became what it is today. This film started a massive winning streak for the brand up until 2010 with the following films being Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, & Toy Story 3 (my personal favorite). Pixar was at its absolute peak for 9 consecutive years. Afterwards, no peak lasts forever as the heavy competition was starting to form…. but that's where the “hidden, once-in-a-generation gems” come in.
“Competition Arises….”
After 2010 when Toy Story 3 made over $1,06 billion worldwide and became the highest-grossing Pixar film ever and the highest-grossing animated film of all time. This brand, as explained in the paragraph above, was absolutely ruling the world. But then everyone's worst nightmare started to come along… competition.
And it was a lot. One competition they started facing was from Universal Pictures' own animated brand, Illumination, which had already started huge with their first feature film in 2010 - Despicable Me. And with that, the juggernaut that is the Minions franchise started to form. And the other competition Pixar had started to face as well was from their own parent company - Walt Disney Animation Studios. Disney Animation's first feature film in 2010 - Tangled - was a moderate hit. But then came their following projects with bigger successes (Wreck-it-Ralph, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, and others). But by November 2013, everything changed. Frozen premiered. Parents decided to let it go and take their kids to see this film in masses during the holiday season. This unexpected, pop-culture, worldwide phenomenon passed Toy Story 3 as the highest-grossing animated film of all time with almost $1,3 billion. Insane numbers for an animated picture. Pixar started to open their eyes to the new world around them. Remember what was written in the paragraph above about Pixar now only having “hidden gems” up their slate… well, Inside Out was the one in 2015. Many to this day consider it to be Pixar's best film. But after 2015, Pixar was on a slow, but very visible downfall, maybe not box office-wise…but surely quality-wise. Two examples would be two hugely anticipated sequels from them - Incredibles 2 & Finding Dory. Huge juggernauts at the box office, but not-so-great films; at least compared to their previous entry.
“The 2020s….”
The pandemic hit and theaters shut down. That's when the infamous Disney+ streaming platform came out. Disney & Pixar decided to release three of their new films in 2021 - Soul, Turning Red, and Luca - straight onto Disney+.
Sure, the theaters were still reopening, but they could've waited until 2022 when everything was back up working to release it. But hey, not everything always goes as planned. This trained the families to keep their kids at home as Pixar just dumped three of their new films on Disney+. Why pay $15 per person to go to the theater whenever the next Pixar movie comes out, when they'll probably be on their streaming platform like….60 days later? But then, Pixar's Elemental came out in the summer of 2023. Exclusively in theaters that is. It had the worst opening weekend in Pixar history with just $29 million. But then, this film went from what seemed to be a colossal disaster to one of the biggest successes in recent Pixar history. It went to finish with a gigantic $497 million in box office by the time it left theaters. That's half a billion dollars worth of money, folks. And that's because of word of mouth. It spread like wildfire. It's a terrific little film. And Pixar learned their lesson from this. From now on, all their films will have a 100-day theatrical window before releasing on Disney+. Now back to Elemental’s success, another reason was because there weren’t any political agenda to it, something other recent Disney animated films, like Lightyear and Strange World, two massive flops in 2022, had. Audiences aren't dumb, they know when you're forcing agendas down their throat. There's no problem in having diversity, not at all, but know how to use it right that doesn't feel forced or affect the narrative in any way.
“The Now: Inside Out 2….”
With the rare exception of Elemental, Pixar has not connected with audiences the way they used to. That's just a fact. But Inside Out 2, being a sequel to a very successful and beloved first film, the industry and Pixar themselves had high hopes for this one.
Coming out of the red carpet premiere of Inside Out 2 a week before its release in theaters, reviews started pouring onto the internet - to global critical acclaim. Critics loved this! Finally a win for Pixar… but that was just the beginning of this much-needed win. The remaining question was: the critics loved it, but will audiences/teenagers connect with it as well? Believe it or not, teens and adults are the main target audience for this film. Obviously it being animated and rated PG may seem otherwise, but for the people who watched the first film in 2015 and have grown up with it since (like me for example), have a deep connection with it and were dying for this much-needed sequel. Parents who maybe didn't have their kids yet in 2015 and saw it, now do and are going for the ride and taking their small ones to this event flick. The sequel focuses on Riley, the main protagonist, now a teenager and going through anxiety and other “teenage” emotions that teenagers relate to in so many ways. What old but beloved franchises like - Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, and etc - were for teens in the 70s and 80s who are now adults and feel nostalgic and have a deep connection to it… is now what INSIDE OUT, now a huge franchise, means for us (pre-adults) today. Inside Out 2 just had the biggest opening weekend worldwide for a Pixar movie ever, beating Incredibles 2 (2018) and Toy Story 4 (2019). The first Inside Out finished its four-month theatrical run with a massive $860 million. That's amazing. Just FYI, Inside Out 2, in only a week playing in theaters, is already closing in on $700 million. In just a week. Talk about a comeback, folks. So yeah, Pixar's back, baby!
